I’m Daniel Vazquez.

$46. That is how much my father had in his pocket when he left Cuba and arrived to this country in 1961. Right away he got to work, cleaning movie theatres at night and busing tables during the day. He then waited tables for almost two decades. From there he worked making and selling juice out of a truck. Then he painted houses and then worked for a paint supply company. There was no thirty years, retirement party, and gold watch for my father. 59 years after arriving in this country, he still works part-time. More than half of a century of work to try to create opportunities for me and my siblings.

Now I see others who are putting in the work to build a better life and create those same opportunities for their kids. An unlucky few, through no or little fault of their own, are injured on the job. A workplace injury can be devastating. There is a system in place to take care of medical bills and compensate workers while they heal, but that system often fails those workers. A lot of times, insurance companies are great until a claim gets expensive or the healing process takes longer than expected. That is when the denials come, and a system that is supposed to be there for workers fails them. Those are the people I represent, the ones that the system has failed. Nothing makes me prouder than when I can help make it right.

Whether it be in English or Spanish, I’m proud to offer a strong voice for injured workers who need it the most.